Alright
by SilverSwirls
Summary: Mercury wakes from a nightmare, heading outside for some air he finds Emerald has just one thing to say.


Pained, labored breathing had filled the otherwise empty room where Mercury Black slept. Trickles of sweat glided down his forehead, pricked at the back of his neck, leaving a damp imprint to sit darker against his shirt. Mercury tossed in his bed, the covers long ago tossed off and his pillow on the floor. Noises left the young man's throat, as if he wanted to talk through his sleep, but couldn't quite get anything out. The clear signs of nightmares wracked his body as bad memories were relived through his dreams.

"_Come on boy, you have to push harder than that!"_

_Mercury's smaller body hit the ground as the older man before him threw yet another punch to his stomach. The preteen's gray eyes shut in pain as he felt his arms give in from holding him up. His banged-up body hit the grass of their backyard, the cool blades feeling slightly good against his bruising skin. Mercury lifted himself back up, now sitting on his knees to hold himself with one shaky arm. "Dad" his voice came out weak and exhausted, "no more tonight, I can't…" _

"_You can't? The weak get nowhere in this world, now get back up and finish this fight!" Mercury wavered as he forced himself back up. He was bent over slightly, hands braced on his knees as he took a moment to breathe. Suddenly he bolted forward towards his father while throwing punches and kicks that were only blocked by the older assassin. Mercury cried out, falling back to the ground as his father punch caught him by the side of his jaw. Blood dripped from his mouth, though Mercury only saw it through blurred vision. "Weak." Marcus Black spat, "have you learned nothing from your training?" The older man's boot hit his side, causing Mercury to fall completely to the ground, exhausted and unable to get back up. _

Mercury's eyes opened, his body shooting up from the bed. Mercury breathed heavily for a few seconds, a hand coming up to comb through his disheveled hair. He closed his eyes, why was all of this coming back now? Mercury turned to look around the small room of the inn. It was dim with the lack of nighttime air breezing in from the cracked window. The young man got out of bed, moving to slip his shoes on. With the hot summer air outside sleepwear on, his shorts leaving his cybernetic prosthetics on display. Usually, he opted to cover them up, not necessarily because he was ashamed or nervous to show them off, but because it saved him from the staring of others and their prying questions.

_How'd you get those prosthetics?_

_What happened?_

Tedious questions that he never favored to answer.

The sticky summer air was somewhat refreshing against his flushed and hot skin. Cinder and Emerald were still asleep in their own room. They'd stopped at this in a few hours ago, taking a break to sleep somewhere other than outside while making the journey to Beacon. They were in the middle of making way through a long stretch of forest land, leaving the towns rather spread apart. Mercury walked along the dirt path leading away from the in. With arms folded behind his head, he closed his eyes with a deep sigh.

Though nightmares of his father weren't plentiful, they certainly were not unheard of for him. Sometimes they came, usually, it seemed random to Mercury, who tried his best to remain unaffected and unphased by them. He wasn't too keen on the idea of spilling the fact that he had nightmares to the girls, Cinder especially. She'd have a field day with the idea, he knew it. They were all the same to Mercury, the same voice of his deceased father. The same particular nights of beatings, training as Marcus would claim, replaying through his dreams.

Of course, the worse ones were always of that night. He already remembered that night well, but his nightmares seemed persistent in reminding him of the details. The big fight with his father, how hard it had been to do; not emotionally or anything, but hard in the sense that Mercury had been tired. Tired of fighting, at his breaking point, wanting nothing more than to prove he was strong enough to get his semblance back from him. He could remember the utter disappointment and fear he felt when his semblance remained gone, seemingly forever lost to his father's own. The heat of flames as he set the fire that left his childhood home to ash, how badly his legs had ached form the injuries he sustained and how attempts to tourniquet them did so little as he limped away, bruised up but feeling oddly free now. And of course, Cinder and Emerald had been there, looking for Marcus, but instead gaining him.

Mercury sighed as he stopped to lean against the fence around the inn's property, looking up the blues and blacks that made up the sky. Not many clouds were out tonight, leaving the shattered form of the moon high in the night sky, glowing faintly. Letting his gaze drop down to the grass, Mercury subconsciously tapped his foot upon thoughts of how he'd injured his legs back then. Hot nights like these always reminded him of those training sessions in the backyard.

The soft gravel of footsteps alerted and drew Mercury's mind from his memories, prompting him to turn and look into the dark in time to spot Emerald walking up. "What are you doing up?" She asked, coming to join at his side.

"I could as you the same thing." He scoffed slightly, rubbing the back of his neck as he hoped she hadn't spotted any of the emotions on his face as he'd been thinking.

She rolled her eyes, moving to lean beside him. "I just needed some air."

"What, bad dreams?" He teased.

She scoffed, "the same could go for you." She jabbed back.

"I don't have nightmares" he played it off, though slightly defensively. Emerald hummed, not saying anything, but keeping her eyes fixed on him.

"You okay?" She asked, "you look pale."

"Oh, is Emerald's concerned?"

"You're impossible." She rolled her eyes, pushing herself up from the fence. "I'm going back to the inn. You should too, were leaving first thing tomorrow." She began to walk up, though stopped to turn her head back to him. "Oh, and Mercury?"

"What?" He sighed, looking back up to her.

"You're going to be alright." She said, though didn't stick around long to enough to elaborate or catch his reaction.

Mercury pressed his lips into a thin line as he looked back up at the sky, not wanting Emerald to catch on, though he was positive she already knew what had been going on with him. "Thanks" he spoke, his voice falling a bit short, not loud enough to reach her disappearing form. He chipped at the fences wood, his head resting in the side of his head. _Yeah… _he thought, his semblance and his father in mind, _I'll be fine._


End file.
